Rebecca MacKinnon's postings about work, reading, and ideas from 2004-2011.

March 16, 2008

Tibet... is discussion possible?

The Chinese system of Internet censorship and media propaganda may have a
lot of holes, but when tested by events like the Tibet unrest this past
week, so far it's holding up well enough for the regime's purposes.

For those living in the West who didn't realize that there's little sympathy for Tibet independence among ethnic Chinese in the PRC, this blog post on Global Voices will be a shocker. John Kennedy has translated chatter from Chinese blogs and chatrooms that generally runs along the lines of: those ungrateful minorities, we give them modern conveniences and look how they thank us... where have we heard this before? Reuters has a roundup on the Washington Post that begins: "a look at Chinese blogs reveals a vitriolic outpouring of anger and nationalism directed against Tibetans and the West."

Of course, pretty much anything presenting more nuanced views that don't show the Chinese government actions in a good light are censored anyway. YouTube is of course blockedagain. Bloggers are reporting that many BBS and chat channels are being closed or cracked down upon, and that mobile SMS's coming from or about Tibet are being heavily filtered.

"Davesgonechina" at the Tenement Palm blog has been translating the chatter coming from Chinese netizens on Fanfou and Jiwai - Chinese versions of Twitter. Click here, here, and here, specifically.

Dave has done more than translate: he points out that this Tibet situation is a real challenge to all people who believe that the Internet can help foster free speech and bring about better global understanding. Here is his challenge to all of us:

1) Believe in democratic principles and free speech
2) You believe the Internet is a tool for unfettered global communication
3) There's something in China (or any other country) that bothers you

Then you ought to put some energy into communicating directly with Chinese netizens about the problem. For years now I've seen alot of Chinese netizens discussions be completely ignored or simply missed by English-speaking netizens, who too often think that Chinese netizens are all completely brainwashed. Well, guess what? Some of them think you are too. Instead of dismissing each other as fools, how about we try to talk? So I say, Tweet Back! Tweet in English, alot of Chinese people know some. If you know Chinese... what are you waiting for?

He goes on to propose some specific ways to engage Chinese people in discussion of the Tibet issue, starting by signing up for accounts on a Chinese version of Twitter, Fanfou. In an earlier post he writes:

This is the perfect opportunity for Tibet internet activists like Oxblood Ruffin and concerned netizens everywhere to engage Chinese people on the Internet in discussions about what is going on. As I previously outlined in a primer to engage Chinese people, these are channels where one can register a free account and launch dialogues with Chinese individuals about Tibet. Many of the people I've included below are neither kneejerk nationalists or xenophobes, and some of them know some English too. It wouldn't hurt to try. You can respond by clicking on the username link at the beginning of each tweet, sign up, and talk back.

Dave also makes an astute observation that the East-West miscommunication madness is here to stay - and likely to get worse - between now and the Olympics. In a post titled SchizOlympics he reflects the feelings I share, and why I've not been looking forward to August:

Watching the build up to the Olympics has been, for me, like watching the world's biggest, slowest traffic accident. For a while now its been pretty obvious that alot of contentious issues about China were going to come to the front as we approach August 8th, but the problem is that there are two completely separate parallel worlds on these issues: the Chinese one, and the rest of us. Westerners have been exposed to rhetoric and information about Tibetan discontent, Darfur's international and Chinese dimensions, and of course old chestnuts like Tiananmen provide a larger context of long term, ongoing problems. Meanwhile, Chinese mainlanders by and large have no knowledge of these events or issues. While for the rest of the world the Olympics will be largely a referendum on China's ability to deal with what everyone else has talked about for years, for Chinese citizens it will be about China winning a beauty pageant of sorts.

Two Worlds, Two Dreams: prepare for the SchizOlympics.

Are we ready?

Meanwhile, here are some other online must-reads from the past couple of days:

The China Digital Times has been doing a fabulous job of aggregating both professional and amateur reports from Tibet. Here is a collection of mobile phone photos they linked to, for instance.

Roland Soong translates a first-hand account from a Chinese person in Lhasa. He also has a long update today including links to contrasting YouTube videos that paint different pictures of what's happening.

Will at Imagethief has some astute observations about how Chinese government messages that work well on domestic audiences often don't work well on foreigners, but he points out that the Chinese official communications strategy is getting more sophisticated.

As Roland also points out, romantic fantasies and propaganda about Tibet aren't exclusive to any one side. Perhaps it's time to go re-read Orville Schell's book Virtual Tibet.

Comments

Good question - of course, the answer should be yes, but this rubbish about both sides being equally partisan makes it impossible. If you believe this then you've swallowed the communist party's position. For them obfuscation always benefits their claim to establishing clarity and order.

What's happening in Tibet and Gansu is an overdue response to Beijing's attempts to commit cultural genocide. Beijing has a small window to save themselves a major problem - engage with the Tibetan exiled leadership, bring them into the political process. If they don't then this new generation will have no choice but to revert to more violence....perhaps terrorism.

But not WITH the Communist Chinese. Otherwise, given the opportunity, they'll beat the living stuffings out of you....if not outright kill you. But...hey...that's the way they do 'government'. It's their MO. And, whomever accepts it is culpable.

On the other hand, there are other venues where this atrocity can be addressed. For instance the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

It's a crying shame that they've sunk to the level of the Nobel Prize crew; honoring mass murderers, i.e., Arafat.

So. I suggest we address the IOC, as we cannot impact on the Communist dictators of China. But we CAN impact the IOC.

Believe me, a quick servey of what the self appointed expat China experts are saying will prove a simple truth - most y'all "ma'sas" are only interested in bashing China and denigrate a billion people, while ignoring the blood soaked land we are standin on.

We ain't interested in talking to the Chinese.

If we do, perhaps we will have a real conversation about our own transgressions, our own physical/cultural genocide.

Show me one Tibet blogger that blogged with the same "enthusiasm" when the last native speaker of Eyak died.

Show me one Tibet blogger that holds ourselves to the same standards that we impose on the Chinese.

I once asked if it's okay to put the Tibetans in reservations like we do with the Native Americans(Tibet SAR as one contiguous territory).

Why Dalai Lama didn't call the stop of the violence and the killing and beating of innocent Han People immediately?

Could worthy ends justify any means? If that is the case, why should we blast any terrorist attacks?

As a spirit leader, "I cannot ask people not to do this, not to do that" is simply not good enough.

This is an interesint eyewitness account on the Garudian webiste:

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/15/tibet.china2

"The residents are very angry. They are throwing stones at anyone who is Han [Chinese] or from other minorities like the Hui, who are Muslims. It seems like it's ethnic - like they want to kill anyone not Tibetan."
...
"I saw three people assaulting a man - I was 50 metres away, but I think he was Chinese. They kicked him and then one man had a knife and used it. He was lying on the floor and the man put the knife in his back, like he wanted to see he was dead.
"I had to get away, there were people throwing stones.
"When I came back he was gone - I don't know if he's dead. Then I saw people who had obviously been beaten or stoned. There wasn't blood on them but they were so shocked.
"This area used to be a place where Tibetans and the Chinese were friendly.

Maybe when a little bit of financial reality bites some of the current nationalistic frenzy might abate and make the beginnings of genuine dialogue a possibility. Sadly, until that point, any attempt at engagement merely serves to fuel the already insane levels of Chinese xenophobia.

How true observation about the Olympics, the differing viewpoints of both the Western world and the Chinese world.

However, a sentence worth pondering is - "Two Worlds, Two Dreams" is that true?

The West may not like China, but China still have friends in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

I would hope that the West would boycott the Olympics as well as Made in China products.

I just want to announce again to "the rest of the world" (and that means the Western world) - for the Africans, Latin Americans and other Asians don't exist- that if you don't like what is happening in Tibet, you are free to boycott the Olympics.

As a Chinese, I cannot force you to boycott. But I hope you will make the right choice and do the right thing that will make both of us happy.

"I would hope that the West would boycott the Olympics as well as Made in China products...As a Chinese, I cannot force you to boycott. But I hope you will make the right choice and do the right thing that will make both of us happy."

Mahathir Fan, thanks for adding weight to my point regarding the current insane level of Chinese xenophobia.